A childish spirit trying to understand the world of grownups

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First year summary

This academic year is coming to an end faster than I would’ve expected and less than in a month I’ll be able to say that I’m officially done with my first year of university. I think I need quick moment to think about this because it seems crazy. Time flies so fast! I think it’s the best time to recap the whole year and think about what I have (or haven’t) done/achieved.

I would say that this year, in terms of being socially active, wasn’t as successful as I would’ve liked. Mainly because I was a bit too afraid and cautious about unnecessary things. I feel like it just wasn’t meant to happen even though I tried (NOTE to self: you can always try harder). As an example, I could tell you my hopeless situation with university societies.

Being a complete fresher during the first month of university I decided that joining some sort of society will help me become a more outgoing girl, give me plenty of opportunities to meet amazing like-minded people and just spend my free time by doing what I truly enjoy. It took me a couple weeks to decide which societies to join which at the end came out to be a Fashion Society and a Baking one. Fashion – because I really wanted to meet and hang out with creative stylish people and go to London’s fashion week! And baking… Well, I have always enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen and who wouldn’t like to learn a couple more perfect brownie recipes?

Now, Akvilė, how is it not successful if you found the perfect societies? Well, these societies never became active. There were 0 updates, 0 meetings held (maybe 0,5 meetings because there was one Baking society’s meeting but nobody, including people in charge, showed up and I just waited 30 minutes next to a locked classroom). At first I had a thought that people who created the societies need a little bit more time to get the required amount of members to get everything running and I waited, waited, waited hoping for some updates until it was probably too late to join a different society. It’s the beginning of May and nothing has happened since October. As sad as it sounds, I just wasted my fresher’s year in terms of societies.

BUT, there are positive things at the end of every story. Mine is not an exception. First of all, I managed to find people who bring me joy and I bond with really well. I always found it a bit difficult to invite new people to my life so finding myself a small circle of friends feels really rewarding and heart-warming. Thinking about it now, I can’t imagine my life without these precious human beings.

Secondly, I have been working on my confidence and I believe that joining the gym was the one of the factors that boosted my elf-esteem. I have been an active person for probably ~4 years so exercising isn’t something new. Having 2-3 week breaks wasn’t something uncommon but the last year was an exception. I have been working during the previous summer and physically couldn’t find time or energy to get back to working out which means that I had a pretty long break. After that, I moved to England and started university. It took me a couple more months to find a proper gym and a work out buddy because I didn’t feel comfortable going alone at the time. A couple months passed and I started noticing that the strength that I had at some point started coming back, and after a 5+ month break I felt more flexible, energetic and not as sluggish again. I have never been a part of a gym when I was at home (Lithuania) because it didn’t really feel right and I thought I wouldn’t be able to focus on myself because of all the people but here I discovered that people are just minding their own business and everyone (myself included) is trying to achieve their own goals. Now all of the self-consciousness disappeared and I happily go to the gym on my own without hesitating which is a huge step as well. Going to the gym makes me stay on track, have a routine and helps to improve my relationship with my body and my state of mind.

In addition to that, I traveled a little bit as well. I ended up visiting quite a few cities. The close ones such as Birmingham, Kenilworth, Warwick, also London, Newcastle and a few more (Oxford, Southampton, Sheffield, Leeds) which I visited by accident by getting on the wrong coach… Of course, I wish I travelled more and I can’t wait to visit Bath, Bristol, Dublin, Glasgow and many more.

So, this is a short summary of pros and cons of my time spent in university… I would love to be able to add something more exciting but I definitely wouldn’t take anything out. I value every experience and I can’t wait to see what future is holding for me.